I want to protect you and your loved ones from becoming victims of crimes by the catholic church and all abusers of human beings. I want to give survivors of sexual and physical abuse a voice to be heard all over the world. All abuse of children and adults by religious groups and by any organization or individual must be stopped. We can add our voices to a growing, worldwide community of people who want truth and justice. Please share your experiences with me and others on this blog.

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Saturday, July 5, 2014

Priest charged with sexual abuse in Portugal hospital: a worldwide menace in the name of God

A
priest (no name given, see his photo) and his accomplice, a hospital employee, are
charged with sexually abusing patients between 2004 and 2010 in several
Portuguese hospitals run by a roman catholic order: "The charge relates to the sexual abuse
of four patients in the care of institutions run by the Hospitaller Order of
Saint John of God," prosecutors said in a statement this week. One of the hospitals mentioned in the
indictment is an institution specialized for the mentally ill.

That’s
just the tip of the iceberg. Beware! The order operates more than 250 medical
centers around the world: in Africa,
Asia, Australia, all of Europe, Mexico and South America and in the U.S. in Los
Angeles and New Jersey. Here we have representatives of the roman catholic
church who advertise that they are “a national charity helping vulnerable
people to lead fulfilling lives and reach their potential.” Note the word, “vulnerable” – that is just
the people these criminals prey upon. They
“treat” people with learning and physical disabilities, people with mental
health problems, those who have difficulties with drug and alcohol abuse and
migrants who are vulnerable to homelessness – all those who cannot defend
themselves. They hide behind God and have
the nerve to call themselves (in Italian): Fatebenefratelli, meaning
"Do-Good Brothers". “Do-Evil” is more like it.

This
latest church scandal comes when the Portuguese catholic church is already
under fire for the case of another priest named Luis Miguel Mendes. He was
sentenced in 2013 to ten years in prison for the sexual abuse of six minors
aged between 13 and 15.

A
good example of how the Saint John of God “brothers” operate is what they did
in New Zealand.

Marylands
School which taught pupils with learning difficulties in Christchurch, New
Zealand was the scene of a high-profile scandal with sexual charges made
against three members of the order. By
2006, the Australasian branch of the Saint John of God order had paid out $5.1
million to survivors who had been sexually abused at the school. Over 120
complaints were made in regard to sexual and physical abuse that occurred at
the school, most in the 1970s.

Bernard
Kevin McGrath, a Saint John of God brother, age 65, received 21 guilty verdicts,
pleading guilty to only one charge of sexually abusing boys. There were nine
victims aged between 7 and 15 at the School where McGrath was a teacher and
housemaster. The five-year jail term he got produced an
angry reaction from people packing the High Court in Christchurch: "Die,
you ... priest," said one man. "What a waste of time," said
another as McGrath was led away to the cells.
A man who had been at Marylands
and knew the nine men McGrath had abused, said: "I'm not too impressed.
This sentence is not going to bring closure for the boys." The manager of
the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust, Ken Clearwater, said he was in shock.
"Five years is a joke. For what that man's done, it's an insult to the
victims. I know there will be a lot of men hurting out there at the moment. I
hope they have supports in place to help them get through this."

McGrath
had two earlier prison terms - three years in Christchurch in 1993 and nine
months in Sydney, Australia for similar offending – the church knew this and
kept supporting him. The judge was skeptical of his current claims of remorse.
It was determined that McGrath had not made full admissions in 1993 and had received a two-year "discount" on
his sentence for his phony “full and frank” admissions of guilt. "You were
there to be their protector. In truth you were their abuser," said the
judge. "They had nowhere to turn, no one to go to. It is no wonder they
reacted in such a distressing way when they gave evidence."

Before
the sentencing, the church had McGrath attending a sex offenders' course in the
United States and another offenders program New Zealand. It is common knowledge that sexual offenders
are never cured by such programs or by any type of therapy – even castration. Once a rapist, always a rapist. But the church persists in useless actions
like these and just moves the “cured” offender to the next parish where he
resumes raping. "I don't think you
should ever be placed, or allow yourself to be placed, in the situation where
you are with young people," said the judge. Crown prosecutor Kerryn Beaton
said McGrath's sexual abuse had been marked by violence, threats and sometimes
cruelty.

In
2008 another brother Roger Maloney, head of the Marylands School, was found
guilty of seven sex abuse charges. After being extradited from Australia, he
was jailed for three years for committing sex offenses. After serving 13 months
of a 33-month sentence he was paroled and accepted back into the Australian
branch of the Order of St John of God. A
former member of the order's professional standards committee, psychologist Michelle
Mulvihill, said the return of Maloney was "shocking". About
taking care of Maloney, Mulvihill said, “The order will do that in secure, safe
accommodation, where he will live in supervised retirement." Mulvihill
doubts Maloney will be kept under observation. "There will be no
supervision for him. The idea it is like some kind of lockup is just silly. The
only rule will be not to talk to the media," she said.

Another
brother, Raymond John Garchow was given a stay of proceedings relating to eight
charges over the sexual abuse of boys because he was too ill to stand trial.

So
the scenes are repeated: rape and abuse of children by clergy and cover up by
the church, light sentences and support in retirement for even the worst
offenders. Do we believe pope francis when he says he is doing something about
the clergy abuse problem? It doesn’t
ring true. Francis will meet with abuse victims – how does that help the
hundreds of thousands of children and women and helpless people still being
abused all over the world? As the vatican always does, there are many meetings
and commissions but no results. The abuse continues.

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About Me

When I was three and a half years old, I and my five year
old brother Frankie were raped by a catholic priest and put in St. Agnes Home and School in Sparkill, NY. I was beaten every day and then smothered by a catholic
nun. I didn't die but I was in a coma for almost year, leaving me brain damaged. After we got out, my
brother killed himself because he couldn't help me or accept the abuse we received. I want everyone to know
about the brutality and crime then and still going on in the catholic church. I want to stop
the crimes the church commits against our children and us and get justice for the victims. Give me your ideas
so that we all succeed in making this world safer for our children.